Page 38 of Demon of Dreams

“Sit wherever you want,” he said. “Nothing’s assigned. Ash just likes to sit back there so he can launch spitballs. I like it better up here. It’s easier for note-taking. Oh. Here.” He held out the five books he’d carried in his arms. “These are for you.”

I grunted as he placed the stack in my hands. They were heavier than they looked, and a tiny cloud of dust rose around me. I fought the urge to sneeze.

I inspected the titles.Spellwork II: Theory and Casting for the Modern Witch;Environmental Magic: Principles and Purposes;Alchemical Approaches to the Preternatural, Seventh Edition; Supernatural Relations and Communication; andFundamentals of Magical Healing.

“Shit,” I said, looking around frantically. Spellwork II? That implied the existence of a Spellwork I class that I’d obviously missed. Could I evendospells? The dean hadn’t said anything about that last night. I felt deeply unprepared for all of this.

I glanced back at Felix, wanting to explain my mounting panic, but all that came out of my mouth was, “I didn’t even think about like, notes, or a pen, or anything.”

“It’s okay. I have extras.” Felix dug into his bag and handed me a yellow legal pad and a chunky push-pen with the nameAngler’s Restprinted on it in curling blue letters, with a green fish arcing over the top.

In the time we’d been talking, the seats around him had filled up. So I thanked Felix and headed towards Ash in the back, right as a deep bell boomed four times, a heavy sound that reverberated through the building.

I felt the eyes of the classroom on me and heard a murmured, “Who’s that?” as I threaded my way through the desks. Ash patted the empty seat next to him and I sank into it gratefully before looking around.

Vesperwood might be a university, but this room felt like nothing so much as a middle school classroom from the 1950s. The desk-and-chair combinations were arranged in rows facing a big blackboard at the front of the room, with two bulletin boards on either side. I half expected to see book reports and art projects adorning the walls.

The floor was planks of warm oak, worn pale in places where countless feet had tread. The windows were framed in the same wood, letting in such bright morning sunshine that it felt like summer rather than January. Other students, male and female, exchanged quiet words and laughs in the lively light.

A massive wooden desk sat in front of the blackboard with a globe on one corner and a small, potted jade plant on the other. The globe was the only thing that didn’t fit the middle school vibe. It looked like it had been transported from a Victorian academic’s study. The oceans were a faded brown, the continents a dusty green, and gold script dotted the surface. I thought I could see a sea monster lurking down near Antarctica. A student walked by the desk and her movement set the globe in motion. Was I imagining it, or were the letters changing, words appearing and disappearing as the globe spun?

I was still frowning at the globe when another figure walked to the front, and the room fell silent. I looked up to see a statuesque woman with blond hair curling loosely over her shoulders as she leaned back against the desk. She wore a sweater vest over a frilly pink blouse, with herringbone tweed pants.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said, her tones cool and mellifluous. “I understand we have a new student joining us today.”

The room grew even quieter, and twenty-four heads turned to stare at me and Ash in the back corner. The woman at the front gestured at me to stand, and I swallowed.

Now Ireallyfelt like I was back in middle school. I’d always hated being the center of attention. It was a lot harder to avoid bullying when the teacher put you in the spotlight, reminding the bullies that you existed, and that it had been three whole days since they’d last beaten you up at lunch.

Reminding myself that I wasn’t twelve anymore, I stood up. The woman at the front of the room folded her arms across her chest and looked at me expectantly.

Unsure of what to say, I settled for a wave and a weak smile. “Um. Hi. I’m Cory. It’s nice to meet all of you.”

I swept my gaze quickly over the room, trying to feign comfort. Most of the faces I saw looked bored to mildly interested, but I couldn’t help noticing three that didn’t. A guy with brown hair who was almost too muscular to fit into his desk, a girl with long black hair and cat-eye mascara, and a guy with sandy blond hair who looked like a live-action Ken doll. All three of them were watching me with narrowed eyes.

When the blond guy saw me looking at him, his expression went from disdainful to amused, his lip curling into a smile that looked almost predatory. I jerked my gaze away and saw his smile broaden from the corner of my eye.

I looked back at the woman in the front of the room. After a moment, she smiled and said, “Welcome, Cory. I’m Professor Kazansky. We’re happy to have you here. You’re joining us midway through the year, of course, so I’m afraid you’ll have some catching up to do, but I have every confidence that you’ll meet my expectations.”

Thatdidn’t sound ominous or anything. I nodded uncertainly, and she motioned for me to sit down as she turned to the blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk. I sat down with relief as she scrawled the words, ‘Influencing Your Light - Growth Versus Motion,’on the board. It sounded like the title of a multi-level marketing seminar, but I had a feeling it meant something different here.

“What did she mean, catching up?” I asked Ash under my breath. “Do the courses run year-round here?”

“No, but this is a distribution requirement. Spellwork II. You missed Spellwork I. But it’s okay. We’ll help you get up to speed.” He laughed softly. “Or, well, Felix will. I’m not sure you want my notes.”

I realized that in contrast to everyone else in the room, he didn’t even have a paper and pen on his desk. I opened my mouth to ask him about that when Professor Kazansky moved back to her perch at the front of the desk and began talking again.

“Now, we left off our previous lecture discussing the different ways to manipulate your basic illumination spell. Last semester, you learned how to expand and contract the output of your incantation by absorbing or releasing more or less energy from the network.”

None of that made any sense to me, but a moment later, she held up the palm of her hand, whispered the word, “Light.”

A tiny globe of pure white light appeared in the air above her hand. The class watched in silence as she closed and opened her fingers below the light, which seemed to make it expand and contact in size.

My stomach did a little roller coaster dance as I watched. I felt like I was in free-fall. Magic. She was doing magic. It wasreal.

You might think I’d have accepted that by now, what with the tenelkiri and talking raven and you’re-an-incubus of it all, but I couldn’t stop a thrill from running through me. My chest felt filled to bursting with a bright, kinetic glow, and I thought I might explode with excitement and wonder.

When I was a kid, I used to love fantasy books. Dragons, knights, wizards—I’d imagine myself as a different person or creature with each new book I checked out from the library. It didn’t matter to me, as long as they had power.

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